A wide variety of shower caddies are known. There are two essential types of shower caddies: hanging caddies and pole caddies. The present application is concerned with the latter. A typical pole caddy comprises one or more shelves which are cantilevered from a single vertical pole which typically is positioned in the corner of a bathtub enclosure. Often, the pole is spring loaded and compressed between the ceiling and a lower surface such as the tub rim. Examples of some pole caddies can be seen in U.S. Patents as follows: Lindo No. D635,807; Hofman et al. No Des. 417,991; Yang et al. 8,763,821; and Yang et al. D569,148.
Shelves of pole caddies most often have a nominally pie shape or triangle shape, with sides running parallel to the walls of a right angle corner. Typically, shelves are cantilevered from a slidable collar which is screwed locked or otherwise fastened to the pole at a chosen elevation.
The typical wire basket type construction of shower caddies makes them difficult to clean, for example, to remove soap and scum. When a shelf can be removed from the pole that makes cleaning easier. A shelf that is permanently attached to a collar can only be removed by taking down the pole and sliding the collar off the end of the pole, which is inconvenient. FIGS. 2 to 4 herein show how a wire shelf may be engaged with a collar so that the shelf is conveniently removable. Such construction may be used with the present invention.
There is a need for a better way of holding a collar in place and enabling convenient change in elevation from time to time. Use of a screw or other fastener to hold a collar in place may necessitate the use of a tool (which can be misplaced). And a screw may mar the pole surface, disrupting surface finish and inducing corrosion or causing unsightly appearance when a collar elevation is changed. Alternatively, having a pole with plurality of vertical holes or depressions which receive a fastener can increase cost and make maintaining cleanliness harder.
An object of the invention is to provide a pole caddy which has shelves that have improved ease of adjustability. A further object is that such a pole caddy has shelves that can be readily removed for cleaning. A still further object is that the pole caddy be economic to manufacture and ship.